ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN

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We debate origins of the Universe, life, Earth, humans, religion, atheism, using common sense, evolution, cosmology, geology, archaeology, and other sciences, to repel biblical creationism and other religious beliefs.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) -- the guy who thinks that man can't really destroy the planet because the Bible says only God can -- was passed over for chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in favor of Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI).

But now Upton has named Shimkus to chair the Environment and Economy Subcommittee. That subcommittee has jurisdiction over issues like national energy policy, energy regulation and utilization and the Clean Air Act.

Shimkus, you may recall, questioned whether decrease the use of carbon dioxide was taking away plant food from the atmosphere, declared that cap-and-trade proposals were scarier than terrorism and said global warming was not an issue because God promised Noah he wouldn't destroy the Earth again after the flood.

Shimkus also defended his positions in an interview with a local television station where he highlighted the upside of global warming.

It's such a profound failure of education in the States. Are we supposed to think that if enough people start to disbelieve in gravity we'll start flying........It's not only embarrassing, it's deeply troubling.
I rsan across this woman a couple weeks ago, she worked for Reagan and she's saying this stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJK85PgOuE&feature=related

You reminded me of something actually when you mentioned that nothing about it seemed "holy". As an unbeliever I have been lucky enough to actually visit some of the most sacred places on earth (sacred now or in the past). Pyramids at Giza; Vatican; various cathedrals in Europe; Dai Butsu (giant Buddha) in Kamakura Japan; reclining Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand; Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China; and Jesus' baptism site in Jordan. Not to make any value judgments on which belief system has more merits here but by far the least inspiring of all these was Jesus' baptism site. Even the Christians among us were wholly uninspired. I personally need no more evidence that the truly majestic things we experience are natural phenomena and man-made wonders. Nothing supernatural thus far has arisen to impress those who see clearly.

When I was a health inspector for Denver Health Department I had to inspect the facilities and practice surrounding the making of the "holy flesh". It was a small (very clean) room in the basement of a residence for nuns. The lady that produced the sacred biscuits was a elderly nun with hairnet and a white apron over her habit. One production device resembled an oversized notary stamp the others were a mixer and rolling pin. The thinly rolled dough was fed under the stamp and communion wafers popped out. I asked the nun if I could taste the dough – it had the taste “qualities” of an unsalted rice cake – it tasted like shit with or withoutqueso

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The whole process, while very sanitary, didn't have any “holy” aura around it - no doubt some priestly magic needed to be applied.

The idea that a shitty tasting cracker turns into a piece of Jesus meat when eaten and is then washed down with a shot of blood was, IMO, one of the strangest and disgusting rituals that the church had dreamed up. Further, when one took a crap could it be said to be holy shit?

When I was a health inspector for Denver Health Department I had to inspect the facilities and practice surrounding the making of the "holy flesh". It was a small (very clean) room in the basement of a residence for nuns. The lady that produced the sacred biscuits was a elderly nun with hairnet and a white apron over her habit. One production device resembled an oversized notary stamp the others were a mixer and rolling pin. The thinly rolled dough was fed under the stamp and communion wafers popped out. I asked the nun if I could taste the dough – it had the taste “qualities” of an unsalted rice cake – it tasted like shit with or withoutqueso

.

The whole process, while very sanitary, didn't have any “holy” aura around it - no doubt some priestly magic needed to be applied.

The idea that a shitty tasting cracker turns into a piece of Jesus meat when eaten and is then washed down with a shot of blood was, IMO, one of the strangest and disgusting rituals that the church had dreamed up. Further, when one took a crap could it be said to be holy shit?

Isn't the text of the actual book itself accurate and unmodified, though? I haven't actually read it from that copy. I had read it a while back, in some other printing that I got from the library, years ago.

I just got the version I actually own so that I could read the intro that I had heard about from 'The Atheist Experience'. Well, and of course Ray Comfort's chimps were handing them out for free, so there was no reason not to get it, while I was at Duke University seeing Dawkins speak, anyway.

The intro is ... painful. It took me 5 or 6 sittings to get through the 50 page intro, because I could only cope with so much ignorant bullshit in one go.